We finally purchased our first family ice fishing tent (our last tent was a second hand tent that did not fit our whole family).
I have been researching ice fishing shelters over the last couple months and today was a pivotal moment in the decision making process. It wasn’t easy to make the decision to purchase our first ice fishing tent ever, but it was easier than I expected thanks to the support of my loving family and members of this group who helped me narrow down the “perfect” tent to meet our needs.
My decision making process was a lengthy process. If it wasn’t for the final purchase price I might still have been looking.
A couple months ago I made a poll post trying to find out what the most common tent was and why. Then, I started slowly looking on YouTube to see what the tents looked like. Next, I started looking at reviews and narrowing down what might work best for my family and I.
There were a few tents I originally had on my list. I was considering a Clam, Otter and Eskimo tent and in this particular order. My biased opinion was so focused on the Clam shelters that I lost all perspective on the quality of the other tents. I had stopped researching the Otter and Eskimo tents for a while.
My opinions changed when I read a review on the Clam shelters. The review stated that the Clam hubs were made of plastic. This was a big thumbs down for me. I’m hoping my purchase will be trouble free for at least 5 years if not 10 or 15 years. And so, I started looking at Otter and Eskimo tents. The Eskimos seemed to be more readily available so I decided to email the companies to see if I could gain some idea at how their customer service was. Clam and Otter responded promptly, while the “contact us” feature for Eskimo was more difficult than the others and I quit looking at sending an email to Customer Care after 2 brief attempts.
The Otter products were slowly gaining my interest as I have been in contact with an Otter representative who was answering my email questions and helping me decide on choosing an Otter brand.
My decision was not going to be made until I could physically step inside an ice tent to see if I liked it or not. I had also decided than a “one size fits all” tent was not going to be possible to fit all my ice fishing styles. I decided to look for a larger family fishing shelter this time for two reasons.
1. The hub shelter will store better in my current living arrangement.
2. The hub shelter is generally cheaper than a sled style shelter (and of course I already own a sled).
I have also decided to look for a 1 or 2 person sled style tent later when the time is right. I like the versatility of a smaller tent and like the run and gun capabilities of this style of tent.
Now, fast forward to today. We decided to venture out to Bass Pro Shops in Tsawwassen. We arrived at 10am and went straight to the ice fishing section. There was not a lot of gear to choose from (most of it was most likely picked over on boxing day). There were 2 tents left on the shelf. One was a 2-3 man Otter tent which would be too small for my family. The other was a tent that I was not interested in. Then, as if the employee knew what we needed, he said there were 2 more ice fishing shelters in the back. They had a Clam and a larger Otter tent. The decision was easy and I asked to look at the other Otter tent. While we waited for tent to come out from the back, I couldn’t believe what I saw. The price of the Otter tent was far below what I had seen online on Amazon. It was listed as $439, far below the price of $850 + $430 shipping on Amazon. I asked if we could set up the tent, but the employee said they were not allowed to because of a law suit that was happening over some clumsy customer who tripped on one and hurt themselves. Now, I had to decide. Are all the things I’ve researched true? Will this be a good quality tent that will last?
The “sign” that this was the right tent to purchase was when the Bass Pro employee said that this tent was not even supposed to be in the store. He said it was supposed to be on a truck heading to Calgary, but was mistakenly left behind.
I spent the next 2 hours walking around the store with this tent on top of a shopping cart pondering the pending purchase while the boys looked to spend their $50 gift cards they got from Christmas. There were some close calls as the front end of the tent swung around in the store aisles and almost knocked over items on the shelves, but we managed to pull the trigger and roll our first family ice fishing shelter up to the cashier. A quick photo was taken and we walked out of the store happy and excited to try out our new tent. We had to turn the tent box on an angle in our truck box, because it was too long for our 5’6″ bed. Now, we wait patiently for New Years day and our group get-together.
Did I say we are excited yet? 